When it comes to Los Angeles Lakers superstar guard Luka Doncic, always expect the unexpected.
He had one of those moments during the first half of Monday's road game against the Charlotte Hornets when he gashed the home team's defense for a surprising two-handed throwdown. Doncic is listed at 6-foot-8 by the NBA's official website, but he rarely gets buckets by dunking the ball. In fact, he only had one made dunk in the 2024-25 NBA season, and that was when he was still with the Dallas Mavericks.
But so far in the 2025-26 NBA campaign, the Slovenian superstar has already recorded two dunks. An improvement!
The commentators calling the game for the Lakers and the Hornets were also left clearly surprised by Doncic's slam.
Luka Doncic soars for the two-handed dunk – his 2nd dunk of the year (with replays)
Lakers and Hornets commentaries pic.twitter.com/Tc9JZqa8dR
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) November 11, 2025
Perhaps what was more impressive than the dunk was how Doncic was able to analyze the Hornets' defense before exploiting the wide gap in the middle. A high screen set by Lakers big man Deandre Ayton started it all for Doncic, who then used a quick between-the-legs dribble move to shake off Hornets forward Moussa Diabate before exploding to the basket for the easy jam. Doncic might have even been fouled at the rim by Diabate, but no foul was called.
Nevertheless, Doncic and the Lakers walked away with a 121-111 victory over the Hornets, who simply failed in bottling him up. The former NBA scoring champion finished the contest with 38 points on 14-for-28 shooting from the field and 5-for-15 from behind the arc. He was also a perfect 5-for-5 from the foul line. Additionally, Doncic dished out seven assists, grabbed six rebounds and recorded a steal, all in 38 minutes of action on the court.
So far in the 2025-26 NBA season, the 26-year-old Doncic is averaging 37.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 9.1 assists while shooting 49.1 percent from the field — just numbers Dallas Mavericks fans don't need to see right now.
Meanwhile, Austin Reaves put up big contributions for the Lakers as well versus the Hornets, scoring 24 points with seven assists, while Rui Hachimura provided 21 points.
The 8-3 Lakers will continue their road trip on Wednesday with a marquee matchup against the reigning NBA champions Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
